This document describes methods and systems for reducing the printing of unnecessary pages from web sites and similar sources.
Print job requests are often associated with printing parameters that affect the size of the output of the request, particularly in terms of paper usage. Commonly used printing parameters include font selection, font size, font style and spacing options. While a print job request with a large font size and style and increased spacing options may be aesthetically pleasing, such a request often results in an increased amount of paper usage.
Global awareness of environmental issues has led to increased concern regarding the amount of carbon or equivalent emissions being released into the atmosphere. A measurement of these emissions is generally referred to as a carbon footprint. The amount of paper that a company uses directly relates to its carbon footprint. As such, companies and users are looking for an environmentally friendly option that reduces paper usage and the resulting carbon footprint.
Files describing web pages often include embedded copyrighted information and/or carriage returns at the end of the file. In some cases, the user does not require such information to be included. In fact, many users end up throwing away the last page or last few pages when printing out information from a web page.
Current applications have user selectable print options, such as an option to “fit on one page” that scales the output to fit a specified page size. Such a print option can greatly reduce the text size and result in a document that is more difficult to read. Alternatively, manual editing can allow a user to select different font sizes and other print options in order to reduce paper usage. These options are commonly available in word processing, spreadsheet and other software applications. However, these options do not solve the problem associated with printing unnecessary pages from web sites.